“Because of your condition, you’re exiled”
How does a wheelchair user get into the high cabin of an excavator? Or, when travelling, access the closet-sized washroom in an airplane?
Those are the type of challenges Mechanical Engineering Technology instructor Scott Sparling (class of ’94) wants students to consider at the annual discussions he’s organized to reduce barriers using technology. If the world isn’t always designed with a range of abilities in mind, thoughtful design may make the difference.
This year, Sparling is elevating his efforts.
Empathy and engineering: Attend the Disability Design Symposium
Join students, instructors and guests for a conversation about the everyday challenges faced by people with disabilities and the development of simple, practical design solutions that can improve accessibility and quality of life.
Wednesday, Oct. 15
5 - 7 p.m.
Dow Theatre, NAIT (CAT 191)
On Oct. 15, he’ll stage “Let's talk! Disability Design Symposium - Life in a Wheelchair,” the first afterhours iteration of a previous in-class session. Sparling expects about 60 people – students, staff, and presenters from among those living with disabilities – to gather at NAIT for a candid conversation about common challenges. And he hopes it sets capstone projects in motion.
“There are problems that are not being solved, and there are people who need help,” says Sparling.
Looking back, the symposium seems as if it were inevitable. One of Sparling’s former colleagues has a degenerative muscle condition and uses a motorized wheelchair. Over the years, it had them wondering about everything from the exclusionary design of tables to why that wheelchair, despite costing $3,000, had no cupholder.
And, through students involved with various organizations, Sparling was introduced to local disability advocates eager to share issues that had the potential to be addressed in his classroom – an opportunity that struck him as a win-win.
“It opens [students’] minds to think about … all facets of society,” says Sparling. “They start looking at how everything works around them.”
Just as importantly for some people, they start looking at how it doesn’t.
A microcosm of society
For Tannery Fandrey (Mechanical Engineering Technology ’17), who will speak at the symposium, examining the world that way led to entrepreneurship as the founder of Grey Space Adaptives.
Before 2009, Fandrey describes himself as being a “fully able-bodied person” – and an A-level hockey player. Then he was diagnosed with a condition that led to avascular necrosis, the death of bone tissue.
“Both of my hips look like Swiss cheese, and literally have holes through them,” says Fandrey. It ended his time in conventional hockey. He doesn’t always use a wheelchair, but occasionally finds himself needing one (hence the “grey space” name, based on Fandrey’s familiarity with both ways of living).
As part of reconnecting with athletics, Fandrey turned to custom manufacturing. He founded Grey Space in 2023 to build equipment for sledge hockey, skiing and more, at the Paralympic level.
He’s as passionate about precision as the athletes are about their sports. Fandrey designs directly from body impressions. He ensures the straightness of a sledge frame within 5/1000ths of an inch. He installs devices to shift the centre of gravity for those with amputations. When not working his full-time job with a local manufacturer, he does all of this in his garage shop.
“I have the ability, I have the mindset, I have the background knowledge to be able to solve these problems.”
“I have the ability, I have the mindset, I have the background knowledge to be able to solve these problems,” says Fandrey.
He knows those problems aren’t simply about access to sport. They also affect access to community.
“It is hard when you're disabled and you have such a small group of people that might be doing what you're doing,” he says. A lack of quality equipment can be a barrier to an activity that, essentially, is already a response to a barrier. An uncomfortable sledge or a poorly fit ski can mean that, “because of your condition, you're exiled again.”
It’s a microcosm of society more broadly; paying attention to details generally taken for granted by most can make a big difference. That’s the impact he hopes the next generation of students, like the one he’ll share his story with, will help make.
Advocacy through design
Not all design enhancements will require Fandrey’s degree of detail. Ultimately, all he wants is a level playing field.
Innovation is part of that, with creative, exciting ideas allowing everyone to fully participate. But Fandrey also wants to ensure that those more pedestrian efforts are supported, which he believes isn’t always the case. While a bathroom may have a stall for a wheelchair user, for example, it likely lacks the taller, pricier toilet that can aid those with mobility issues.
“A lot of times we get rid of the disabled requirements very quickly because they're costly,” says Fandrey. The symposium may be a step toward preventing that.
“If we can expose students to this world and [understand] see the challenges … when they work in building design they can advocate for those disability measures,” says Fandrey.
Sparling hopes to see that exposure and advocacy increase, with more speakers like Fandrey coming to the symposium to share their experiences and perspectives with a greater variety of engineering technology students in the years to come.
“I want to see it grow,” says Sparling. “I want to see more areas of NAIT interested in participating or collaborating in that environment to make others’ lives better.
“If the message can reach more people, then that means a better chance of problems getting solved.”